Some well known gardeners wouldn't like this
Some well known gardeners wouldn't like this.
But I do. There's something quite comforting about a stand of these Hemerocallis fulva daylilies.
Oh I know they're "common". And I know they're a bit of a spreader (but not rapacious about it) And I know that many gardeners look over their noses at them.
But I don't care.
This clump is at my mailbox and I've mowed around them to create a bit of an island (and contain their expansion a bit). And I rather like the look it creates as you drive down the road.
It isn't any work - it isn't any fuss or muss. And when they're in bloom - they're quite fun providing a great country look for my mailbox.
And that's what gardening is all about folks (in my .02) Gardening is about fun from your own perspective. I don't care what the gardening mavens say about my oh-too-common daylily - I don't care what the fashionista's say either. I like the darn thing.
And if you like what you grow. Good for you.
It doesn't matter whether the plant is common or the landscaping is not professionally designed or executed. If you like it - if it's *your* garden - then this is all to the good.
Take ownership of the things that are important to you. And to heck with the "experts".
posted by Doug Green @ 8:25 AM
19 comments
19 Comments:
Well, I love it!! I enjoy driving down country and suburban roads and seeing these "common" daylilies!
I am starting to plant them on a hill in my sideyard. They sure look a lot better than the bad bad honeysuckle that used to be there and the weeds that came after the honeysuckle was taken out. Love your newsletter!!
Sandy
I'm cheering you on, Doug. I get thoroughly annoyed when people bring snobbery into the garden.
Bring on impatiens and ditch lilies and geraniums and all yellow flowers!
I love these too, and I've noticed that "daylily people" all spurn them. (I guess you can't make money selling them!)
I have a clump under my walnut tree and a bunch of newer hybrids close by. Funny thing: the old-fashioned "ditch" daylilies, which are blooming now, look way more natural than the shorter-stemmed big-flowered modern hybrids.
I agree with you. But I have a question for you about daylillies. I've always heard that they don't require a lot of fussing, but since the blooms only last a day, don't you have to constantly deadhead them? (I would consider that fussing.)
YES! They are gorgeous!
These are my favorite daylily. My garden is mostly native flowers and wildflowers (aka, "weeds", to some folks). I love it! They survive the extremes of heat and cold, as well as the deer, much better. I love it!
Good for you Doug. Gardening tips and wisdom too!!
Thanks
so glad to hear our garden guru take this stance! makes this unprofessional feel so much better. Kudos!!
I think these daylillies look quite nice. But I have a question for you. I have always heard that daylillies are low-maintenance, but if the blooms only last a day, doesn't that mean you have to constantly do a lot of deadheading?
Right on there, Doug! If you love it, and it's yours, celebrate it!
If you love it, and it's not yours, celebrate it anyway!
I think your island of flowers are beautiful. I am in your camp. Grow what you like and what grows successfully for you.
Hey,
Thanks for standing up for the common daylily. Years ago I was given a batch of roots by co-worker who had lots {sound like a thug?}. We had just bought our first house and I had an urge to plant something but not the first clue about gardening. It was very rewarding to have them come up so beautifully the next spring. I'm still practising in my higgildy piggildy garden, but as you say I plant for my own enjoyment and I still enjoy my dependable "common" daylilies.
Jan {in Nova Scotia}
Go for it! Beauty is in the eyes of the bierholder!
I had several large beds at the old place; not enough room now.
I have a narrow spot between the street and a sidewalk which is somewhat elevated above the street. I can't really mow it and I've been dumping plant debris,sod, etc into this area for the past five years. Besides Day Lillies, I also have tossed in mints, obedient plant,blue flag Iris, even tansy...ALL the "over-ambitious" plants and let them fight it out in that contained space. They can't "escape" and the area looks great, I don't have to mow it, and folks tell me how pretty it is. There's a place for everything...
nancy the county agent
When I was about 8 years old, I transplanted some "common" dayliies from the woods to my parents back door. As I grew older, went off to school and big city jobs, my father would report to me each year how many blooms my dayliles had (he kept a check list by the back door and marked the bloom each day). My father passed away last year, and as we preperared to sell his home, I dug up a bucket full of daylily bulbs. He had never dived them, so they were small but many of them. I heeled them in to keep them over the winter (preparing for my new home-site and gardens) and am now enjoying the offspring of childhood first garden blooming. Life comes full circle once again.
I LOVE all daylilies! I haven't got any "Tigers", because I have a friend who hates 'em. The person who owned her house before she bought it used to grow & sell daylilies, though. She had a dig 'em before I plow 'em under party a while back, and I now have a long sweep of every color from pale yellow to neon orange to deep red in full bloom now. They are GORGEOUS! People driving by have been known to stop on our very busy road to compliment us.
My MIL gave me some last year and they look great in front of my garage with blue bachelor buttons mixed in. I love the blue and orange combo. Try it!
Yes, Daylilies Forever! Batchelor's Buttons sound really good- I have planted that tall, blue Balloonflower, (Platycodon grandiflora var. Apoyama) with mine. They are in full bloom together right now, a truly bright show! I have always had the Hemerocallis fulva (Common Ditchlily) and loved them. A few years ago a friend gave me some that are double and get really tall. They seem to be more susceptible to the "Daylily Streaks" disease, which I have heard is a rust, a fungus, than the newer Hemerocallis cultivars. I pull all the streaky foliage and burn it after bloom season is over. The foliage comes back, healthy, with plenty of time to store starch in the tubers before frost in by zone 6-b garden. But the new ones just aren't affected by it.
Yes ditch lilies are the best, Doug. Do you have any doubles?
They are a sight to behold as well. I have a lily bed with many different lilies and this old faithful holds the eye of the beholder every time. Iris/lily
For the record - in my old farm garden I had close to 300 varieties in the field. Some doubles and mostly older varieties.
My new garden has approx 25 of the newest hybrids
But these old orange ones fit the place they're in so well I wouldn't even dream of removing them.
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